The Wilt Inheritance Read Online Free PDF Page B

him.’
    ‘I don’t call him Eddie, and he’s not in the least bit little as you know … but what exactly were you not blaming my late husband for? At least he wasn’t mean about money.’
    ‘Quite. Though I do blame him for being overgenerous and indulging you in your ridiculously expensive tastes. I actually meant I didn’t blame himfor taking his own life. I’ve had some dark thoughts on the same subject myself, but on the whole I’m against leaving you a wealthy widow like he did, the idiot. And I’m damned if I want your awful boy Eddie to inherit my estate.’
    ‘What on earth are you talking about?’ snapped Lady Clarissa. ‘My first husband met with a terrible accident under the five-fifteen from Fakenham.’
    ‘Tommyrot, and you know it! That story was put about purely because of his insurance policy, my dear. If he were known to have committed suicide, you wouldn’t have smelt hide nor hair of a pay-out. I thought you realised that.’
    ‘Typical of you to assume the worst!’ she cried, marching out of the room only to return a few minutes later. ‘Where’s Cook? I want some tea.’
    Sir George stood up and adjusted the portrait of his mother which was hanging over the fireplace.
    ‘I have no idea. Probably hawking her pearly in Norwich. I’m sure lots of blokes there like thin women. In short, I sacked her.’
    ‘Sacked her?’
    ‘Do you have to repeat everything I say? Yes, I sacked her. I’m afraid you’ll have to make the tea yourself. Oh, and make it strong. I can’t bear weak tea.’
    Lady Clarissa sat down on a chaise-longue by the window and stared venomously at her husband’s back.
    She had hoped he’d be in a good mood when shereturned. Instead he was in one of his most difficult ones. If only she’d married a more amiable man.
    ‘May I ask why you sacked her? Was it perhaps because she was thin and remained so, despite all your attempts at fattening her up? Well, I will make myself a pot of tea but I’m damned if I’ll make you one! And speaking of weight, you can lose a bit tonight because I’m certainly not making supper. You can starve.’
    ‘Oh, I’m going out to dinner tonight,’ he replied, turning to face her with a smile. ‘In fact, I think I’ll go and have a bath and change now.’
    And with that he strolled out of the room.
    In the kitchen, Clarissa refused to let her husband’s behaviour rattle her composure. God knows who he was going out with tonight. He would come home and sleep in his own room as usual. And with any luck, plus the help of his usual excessive after-dinner intake of brandy, he would sleep well and be more amenable to her plans in the morning. She wasn’t worried.
    Nor was Wilt. Talking to old Coverdale had cheered him up. And in any case, the more he thought about it, the more interested he became in seeing how the landed gentry lived. And North Fenland was a part of the country he’d always liked. Cold in winter, of course, with the east wind blowing straight in from the Urals, unimpeded by the flat expanses of theSteppes and the North German Plain. But in summer it should be mild enough and certainly peaceful, with only the few resorts beside the sea over-run by ghastly holiday-makers.
    If Eva were right about Sandystones Hall and it had both parkland and lake it could be very pleasant there. He’d be cut off from the outside world and could wander at will through the woods when he wasn’t having to cram the boy … may even have something of a holiday after all. Eva and the quads could spend their days on the beach, and he’d be earning his fifteen hundred quid a week which might stop his wife from grumbling at him all the time.
    By the time Wilt had had supper and taken himself off to bed in his own room he was almost looking forward to the summer holiday. And so the weekend passed relatively peacefully and on Monday he went back to Fenland University and his office there, feeling almost light-hearted.

Chapter 5
    At Sandystones